Wednesday, May 24

Drafty

From now until draft day, the only thing worth talking about in Sonicland will be who Seattle will take with the 10th pick - or if they'll trade the pick for something else. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to keep track of what the experts think the Sonics will do. Today will be the first edition of What Should the Sonics Do?

Those are just 10 of 14,367 sites compiling mock drafts at this moment. Just imagine if all of the energy spent researching draft choices for the NBA by people who don't even get paid by an NBA team were spent researching, oh, I don't know, cancer? And imagine if 3 losers from Seattle spent as much time working on their careers as much as, oh, I don't know, a blog?

Nice roundup of the experts. I looked at hoopshype to see what they had to say about Brandon Roy. They said the most similar player to him is Manu Ginobili.

Now, I'm all for being open-minded and not just comparing Roy to some other 6'6" black 2 guard, but Manu? You guys watch the Huskies play; did you ever once say to yourself, Hey, that Brandon Roy reminds me of Ginobili?

With much reluctance, I have to say that Redick might be a great fit for this team. I haven't been a huge fan, but he would be backing up Allen, so it isn't like he would be getting 25+ minutes a night. He certainly fits the profile of great offence, no defence. What do people think of Mardy Collins (Temple?) Aside from his being long.

I'm curious to see how Collins would work on the Sonics. Like all Temple guys, he knows how to play defense, but his offense is lacking. On a team like the Sonics, he has to be able to hit outside shots in my opinion - just look at how often Luke gets left alone with an opportunity to hit open jumpers - and I don't know that he can do that consistently. Add in his poor foul shooting, and he's just not a good fit for the Sonics.

I agree that we don't need another point guard, but I don't know if the team needs to draft for position, either. From what I can tell, we are two deep at every position except shooting guard (Ridnour/Watson, Swift/Petro, Collison/Wilcox, and the three headed monster of Allen/Lewis/Wilkins). Getting a top 3 pick and drafting a Brandon Roy would have been ideal, but that isn't happening. This is a team I would like to see kept together for another 2 years before a decision is made. They could be very good as they get older.

I agree 100%, this team really doesn't have any glaring holes that the draft would fill. The only possibility would be to grab a SF to replace Rashard Lewis in case the Sonics expect to lose him to free agency after the coming season. Lewis is going to command big bucks, and I don't know that the Sonics are too excited about paying him what he wants. If that's the case, then it would make sense for Seattle to trade down and grab someone like Shawne Williams from Memphis.

yeah but how many young bigs do you really want on the same squad, Patrick O'Bryant (F*cked up name for a brotha) is real good though he was ballin in the tourney. We really need to go get and old big who was good to mentor our young guys a little, and if Wilcox isn't going to defend than maybe S. Williams from Duke wouldn't be a bad pick up.

As much as I would be excited to have another Bradley Brave in Seattle, I agree with biggie that how many young bigs do we need? The only way it makes sense to draft another big guy like O'Bryant is if Petro is being groomed for the 4, but that seems unlikely. We have a lot of big men right now and I think we do need to start thinking of a replacement for Lewis in case he bolts or is traded. But they might try to look for that in the second round. I hear that Marcellus Sommerville (O'Bryant's teammate) is doing pretty well and is slated to go in round 2 according to the "experts."

While I like Williams from watching him in the tourney, I don't know how much of an upgrade he would be over Ridnour. Granted, Watson seemed to be the preferred closer at the end of the season, but Ridnour feels like he is poised to breakout. Adding another rookie to the team may not be the way to go. Why not package Fortson with the pick for a pick next year? It would be a weird way to trade down in the draft, but possibly worthwhile as Hill has no need for Fortson.